Ronald Bretherton Obituary

Ronald Bretherton 1938-2013

Ron was born in Liverpool on 19th October 1938, and the wartime years were spent in Toxteth with bombs dropping all around. He attended St. Silas Primary School, Dingle Vale Secondary Modern School, and in 1952 passed the 13+ exam to attend the Liverpool Collegiate, where he stayed until 1955. In his life story written a few years ago he reports:

“My three years at this School were very enjoyable as I joined the Combined Cadet Force and also played Hockey for the School first team and in my last year also for the Lancashire Colts. I was awarded the School Colours for Hockey (Blazer badge) at the start of my last year and that gave me certain privileges, e.g. I didn’t have to wear a School Cap and I could use the main entrance and stairs. In the cadets I rose to the rank of Corporal and enjoyed weekend camps at Altcar, Freshfield and Warrington at the barracks of the South Lancashire Regiment (hence the badge). We also went on Summer camps to Carnoustie in Scotland, Colchester in Essex when we also went to London and stayed at the Chelsea Barracks, home of one of the Guards Regiments. Lastly we went to Castlemartin which is near Pembroke in South Wales.”

Ron left the Collegiate in 1955, and worked for 18 months for an Insurance Company, then he volunteered for the Royal Air Force and trained as a radio mechanic. His postings included Germany, the U.K. and Borneo, during the Malaysia/Indonesia conflict. He married a Dutch girl in 1960, and in 1966 he left the RAF to move with his family to the Netherlands where he lived until 2003. He and his wife had two daughters and a son. He had local employment for the first few months and was then employed at RAF Bruggen as a civilian driver, rising to the post of civilian foreman in charge of transport until the base closed in 2002. He owned a succession of boats, moored on the River Maas, and spent his holidays sailing the canals and rivers of the Netherlands and Germany.

His wife died and he returned to the U.K. to live in York, and enjoyed getting to know the country again, but also enjoyed a number of foreign holidays, and in the last few years has been very much involved in the York branch of the Royal Air Force Association, and was the Standard Bearer at the “turning of the page” ceremony in York Minister. His family had grown to include six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. His illness was short and severe, and he died of a heart attack on 24th August.

His funeral at York Crematorium on 2nd September was attend by about 90 people, and was conducted by a retired Army Chaplain. His son-in-law, daughter, grandson, brother-in-law and the President of the RAFA York branch all paid tributes. Ron never forgot his Liverpool roots, and requested two Liverpool classics to be played at his funeral – "Penny Lane" and "Ferry cross the Mersey".

Margaret Hill (Ron’s sister)

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